Frost/Nixon (7/9) Movie CLIP - When the President Does It, It's Not Illegal (2008) HD

Look, Iet me just stop you now right there,
because you're doing something here
which I am not doing, and I wilI not do
throughout these entire broadcasts;
You're quoting me out of context,
out of order; And I might add,
I have participated in alI these interviews
without a single note in front of me;
WelI, it is your Iife, Mr; President;
Now, you've always maintained
that you knew nothing about any of this until March 21 ;
But in February, your personal Iawyer came to Washington
to start the raising of $219,000
of hush money to be paid to the burglars;
Now, do you seriously expect us to believe
that you had no knowledge of that?
None; I believed the money was for humanitarian purposes;
To help disadvantaged people with their defenses;
WelI, it was being delivered on the tops of phone booths with aliases,
and at airports by people with gloves on;
That's not normalIy the way Iawyers' fees are delivered, is it?
Look, I have made statements to this effect before;
AII that was Haldeman and Ehrlichman's business;
I knew nothing; Okay, fine; Fine!
You made a conclusion there;
I stated my view, now Iet's move on;
Let's get on to the rest of it;
No, hold on; No, hold on;
No, I don't want to talk;;;
If Haldeman and Ehrlichman were the ones realIy responsible,
when you subsequently found out about it,
why didn't you calI the police and have them arrested?
Isn't that just a cover-up of another kind?
Yeah, maybe I should have done that; Maybe I should have;
Just calIed the feds into my office
and said, "Hey, there's the two men;
"Haul them down to the dock,
"fingerprint them and then throw them in the can;"
I'm not made that way;
These men, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, I knew their families;
I knew them since they were just kids;
Yeah, but you know, politicalIy,
the pressure on me to Iet them go, that became overwhelming!
So I did it; I cut off one arm,
then I cut off the other, and I'm not a good butcher!
And I have always maintained what they were doing,
what we were alI doing, was not criminal;
Look, when you're in office,
you gotta do a Iot of things sometimes that are not always,
in the strictest sense of the Iaw, Iegal, but you do them
because they're in the greater interests of the nation!
Right; Wait, just so I understand correctly,
are you realIy saying that in certain situations,
the President can decide whether it's in the best interests of the nation
and then do something ilIegal?
I'm saying that when the President does it, that means it's not ilIegal;
I'm sorry?
That's what I believe;
Oh, my God;
But I realize no one else shares that view;
So, in that case, wilI you accept, then,
to clear the air once and for alI,
that you were part of a cover-up
and that you did break the Iaw?
Oh, my God, we got him; NIXON; I;;;
Shit!
Okay, Iet's take a break there;